The Kellogg Biological Station Long Term Ecological Research program is fueled by the energy and creativity of the people involved. Today, over 200 scientists work together on this project, and we welcome new collaborators and researchers joining our team. We have ongoing long-term field experiments, data and soil archives, and community partnerships that are open to researchers at any career stage. If you are looking for ways to connect with the KBS LTER, please reach out to one of the members of our team and we will help you get started. If you don’t know where to begin, send us an email at kbs.lter@kbs.msu.edu and we will pass you on to the right team member!

	Name	Areas of interest	Research	Role with KBS LTER
	Nick Haddad, co-Director	Habitat connectivity, corridors, prairie strips, butterflies, insect populations	We study the application of ecological principles to the conservation of biodiversity. We focus on the effects of land use intensity in diversified agricultural landscapes that increase ecosystem services such as pollination.	Within the MCSE, my lab studies the diversity of species and habitats in agricultural landscapes, specifically focusing on prairie strips.
	Sarah Evans, co-Director	soil biology, microbial ecology, climate change, drought	Our mission is to improve the sustained use of land for natural resources, human well-being, and biodiversity. Management of soil biology is an untapped opportunity to accomplish this, so our research seeks to better understand how microbes function, particularly as they are subject to climate and land use change.	My lab examines the effects of drought experimentally by inducing drought with rainout shelters. We work as part of a large project examining rainfall exclusion in collaboration with 9 other labs (REX).
	Nameer Baker, Science Coordinator	microbial ecology, decomposition, climate change, mentorship	My background is in microbial ecology. My postdoc focused on microbes in the rhizosphere of switchgrass growing in marginal soil, and my PhD focused on litter decomposer communities in Mediterranean ecosystems.	I make sure that many labs collaborating in our experiment do so harmoniously. Contact me if you want to get involved in KBS LTER research or have science questions, but don’t know who to contact!
	Liz Schultheis, Education & Outreach Coordinator	science education, data literacy, scientist role models, Michigan agriculture, invasive plants	As a plant biologist, ecologist, and discipline based education researcher, I work to help scientists share their stories and research with broad audiences to promote a passion for science and data literacy in the next generation.	I direct our community engagement, public programs, education, and communication. My goal is to build partnerships between our scientists and the community to ensure our research is responsive to the needs of real people, such as farmers, teachers, conservationists, policy makers, and more. Contact me for all things education, outreach, and broader impacts!
	Jen Lau, Executive Committee	evolution, natural selection, microbial ecology, resilience	Research in the lab focuses on community ecology and evolutionary ecology. We study how plant populations respond to human-caused environmental change, the ecology and evolution of species interactions, and natural selection in the wild.	In the current phase of the LTER, my lab is investigating whether microbial diversity can promote plant drought resilience and how plant species and functional diversity promote resilience.
	Christine Sprunger, Executive Committee	soil health, nutrient cycling, greenhouse gasses, carbon, nematodes, on-farm research	Our research focuses on the intersection of agriculture and the environment, where we investigate how various agricultural management practices impact soil health and ecosystem services.	Within the LTER, I explore how nematode communities can serve as key soil biological health indicators within agroecosystems. My work takes place within the long-term experiments at KBS, as well as on-farm.
	Sandy Marquart-Pyatt, Executive Committee	sociology, farmer attitudes and behavior, environmental policy	My current work investigates climate change, environmental attitudes and behavior, environmental policy and decision-making, and the spatial distribution of environmental concerns and environmental challenges.	I am the lead investigator of a multi-state, panel survey of agricultural producers in the Upper Midwest of the US. My methodological interests are in structural equation modeling, multilevel/hierarchical modeling, panel models, and survey methodology.
	Sasha Kravchenko, Executive Committee	biogeochemistry, nutrient cycling, soil health, greenhouse gasses, carbon	Our research interests include micro- to macro-scale biogeochemical processes involved in soil carbon and nitrogen cycling. We explore the role of soil pores in micro-scale processes driving soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions.	Within the LTER, my lab studies the interactions between land use and management, soil properties and topography for spatial variability of soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions across agricultural fields and landscapes.
	Bruno Basso, Executive Committee	ecosystem services, on-farm research, remote sensing, policy	We bridge a wide range of disciplines to understand the overall agricultural systems and to improve decision-making across a broad spectrum of stakeholders, from the smallholder farmer in the developing world to the industrial producer and policy maker at all scales.	My lab’s interest is in the ecosystem of row-crop production systems. Chemically intensive production requirements have raised serious concerns about the sustainability of these systems. Of particular importance is the ability to provide sustainable ecosystem services (crop production, carbon sequestration, and nitrogen conservation, in particular).
	Phoebe Zarnetske, Executive Committee	climate change, invasive species, plant communities, herbivory, phenology	Our lab aims to understand and predict how ecological communities respond to change – especially climate change and invasive species. We work across scales from microcosm experiments to continental and global-scale spatial analyses.	I am interested in how biotic interactions and climate change directly and indirectly affect community structure and function. In particular, my lab uses rainfall and temperature manipulations (REX) to study how competition and herbivory interact with warming to affect early successional field community composition, phenology, and plant traits in Michigan.